nela1williamss - Standard 2

Instructional Leadership

School executives set high standards for the professional practice of 21st century instruction and assessment that result in a no nonsense accountable environment. The school executive must be knowledgeable of best instructional and school practices and must use this knowledge to cause the creation of collaborative structures within the school for the design of highly engaging schoolwork for students, the on-going peer review of this work, and the sharing of this work throughout the professional community.

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2a. Focus on Learning and Teaching, Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment: The school executive leads the discussion about standards for curriculum, instruction and assessment based on research and best practices in order to establish and achieve high expectations for student.

Internship Activities

Modeled lessons for teachers
Assisted teachers with several lessons
Conducted classroom walk-throughs and observations and provided feedback on lessons
Completed 15 full evaluation cycles during the 2011-2012 school year.
Attended Common Core Professional Development (DPI and district-wide)
Studied content pedagogy via working along side principal and instructional coach to administer assessments study results, analyze lesson plans and debrief after observations and evaluations
Completed an Internship project (Virtual Field Trips)
Conducted student observations at teachers' requests
Participated in Student Assistance Team meeting
Meetings with teachers concerning grading, progress reports
Participated in grade level meetings about classroom rigor, time management, assessments
Organized professional development for Hollister Kindergarten faculty on vocabulary instruction, Spring 2012.
Arranged targeted opportunities for ongoing professional development for Exceptional Children's teachers during the 2011-2012 school year.

Coursework, Trainings and Readings

Completed Developmental Projects (Early Elementary, Upper Elementary, Middle School and High School)
Participated in Literacy Instruction (three-day NELA training)
Participated in and completed a Turnaround High School case study and school visit
Completed a Special Education legal literacy assignment
Clinical supervision/classroom evaluation assignments
Attended Differentiated Instruction training
Reading and application of "Why Reading by End of Third Grade Matters" ((Fiester, 2010)
Readings from Child and Adolescent Development for Educators (Meece and Daniels, 2008)
Readings from Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14 (Wood, 2007
Attended specialized training in ASSISTment evaluation system, fall 2011.
Reading and discussion on formative assessment and selections from Assessment for Educational Leaders (Popham, 2011)
Training on 21st Century Skills, by DPI, February 2011
Specialized training on math Common Core, fall 2011

Artifacts and Activities

Operation NELA.docx

Observation Reflection.doc

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Operation NELA: Teacher Action Plan

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Reflections on Innovation

2b. Focus on Instructional Time: The school executive creates processes and schedules which protect teachers from disruption of instructional or preparation time.

Internship Activities

Assisted principal and EC teacher with scheduling EC students
Worked with teachers plan the daily schedule for 2012-2013 school year for more effective planning time
Taught several classes when teachers had to leave early for meetings or appointments
Created a letter to parents reminding them of dismissal time to protect teacher preparation time.

Coursework, Trainings and Readings

The Flipped Classroom training
Schooling by Design training
Analysis and application of principles learned from "The 90/90/90 Schools: A Case Study" from Accountability in Action (Reeves, 2005)
Analysis and application of principles learned from "Tipping Point Leadership" from the Harvard Business Review (Kim and Mauborgne, 2003)

Artifacts

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Self Assessment 2012
Standard 2: Instructional Leadership
The instructional leader understands what the 21st century curriculum and instruction encompasses and provides opportunities for teachers, staff and parents to collaborate. The instructional leader must understand the global perspective and have a clear understanding of what students need to be successful in the new global economy. Understanding what curriculum and best instructional practices, including technology, are will help the instructional leader enhance pathways to success. Additionally, the standards for instruction and assessment are set high. Collaboration is also a key component of instructional leadership. All stakeholders must understand the importance of data and how data drives instructional practices. While reflection on practice is essential, the school executive also needs good dialogue/inquiry skills to provide positive feedback on teachers’ effectiveness.
Reflecting on myself as an educator, I see myself as a team player. It takes everyone working together to be successful. I understand that not everyone has to agree, but a win-win situation is a must. Communicating effectively with others is an example. In fact, I believe it is also one of my strengths. These past few months, I have been working on active listening. I’ve learned that managing relationships happens most effectively when I listen more than talk (Gosling and Mintzberg, 2003).
Assessing my skills in this area, I recognize that my knowledge of standards and best practices for the classroom is at a minimum. I practiced as a speech-language pathologist for the last 15 years. My knowledge of standards and best practices is mostly limited to speech and language. Additionally, my speech therapy sessions with children always centered on data. I feel really comfortable with the idea of data driven instruction. I am just not sure how to support that effort in others. Lastly, I feel comfortable communicating personally with others in small groups or individually; however, standing and speaking in front of large groups of people is an area of discomfort. My ability to manage conflict in a constructive manner is a weakness. I prefer to ignore conflict.
During this next year, my priority is to increase my confidence as an effective instructional leader. My goals are as follows:

I will spend time reading what the instructional standards and content standards are for preschool, elementary, middle and high school.
I will observe/serve on professional learning communities at different levels throughout the school district to learn more about data driven instruction.
I will balance my focus during staff meetings across three dimensions of success: results, process and relationship as learned in Focused Leadership.
I will use strategies learned in Focused Leadership training during staff meetings to make the process more comfortable for me and more predictable for staff.